You are right I have never cleaned out ash in a tiny place but from reading your posts on a lot of things. You don't have enough ventilation in you designs. You say wood rots too easily, ash goes everywhere that problem is solved with the same thing active ventilation.
No thermal mass doesn't insulate thats not its point, a one inch air gap on each side will. You do realize just how long it will take for that thermal mass to heat up to the point which it could flash wood? Water is a fine thermal mass but requires a lot of systems to deal with it all of which add weight and take up space too. Where a nice piece of stone or stone like material looks neat even during the summer, think of it as art if you must.
Angle iron will burn out and stainless would be better but I can find angle iron in dumpsters and spend a couple of hours with a drill or 30 min with an angle grinder to make flow holes for FREEEEEEE!

I am not going to start on you about glass blowing.

Nat just don't reply to this this thread anymore. You live in BFE Canada where it is -40 all winter, we got it, this will never apply to me or anybody who is looking into a tiny stove. Trucking around a larger than needed stove thru the desert southwest is also reallllly dumb, My folks live there so there is about a 90% chance of driving thru there once a year as long as they are alive. IMO living in anything with a gap under the living space where it gets -40 is a poor life choice that no amount of wood burning or skirting can solve.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nat_ster

I grew up without running water, nothing but wood heat, grew our own food, walked 15 miles a day hunting, and lived off the land. Every time you say boy scout I chuckle. I lived the Real deal. Boy scouts pretend a few days here and there to live the way I did.

Good for you! As for the boy scouts I also learned about engineering, electronics, wood working, how to cook, how doritos and funions are made, how to be a good person in society, and loads of other things.
I too grow my own food I don't hunt (don't really eat meat). I don't really want to live like a mountain man hillbilly, sorry I just don't. I am glad you did and can share your experiences with all of us, so as to affirm our life choices. I also don't believe my way of doing things is the only way or "THE correct way" as often times there are many correct ways of doing things.

Another random thought about bigger being better... When we lived in interior Alaska, we had a 55 gallon drum woodstove conversion. We threw some gigantic logs in that thing, it reminded me of what it would be like to stoke an old steam locomotive with wood, but I digress. I remember it was always either too blasted hot in the house or too darn cold. Hard to strike a good balance.

Pellet stoves are more efficient and easier to find fuel, but this wood stove will work whether or not I have electricity. It is an investment including buying a chainsaw and the safety gear that comes with that experience (namely, at least chainsaw chaps.) As well as a truck for hauling. Something to consider when picking your heat source: where are you going to source your fuel?
At least pellets are sold at local grain/farm stores.

Still, in all, I'm please with my choice.

If someone were never worried about electric, say, had an awesome solar setup and generator backup, etc... I would suggest a heat pump. It will also serve as a source of A/C in the summer; they make small window models and they are, as far as I've seen thus far, the most efficient and cost-effective form of heat, when you figure it all out with BTUs per watt and all that. Very efficient.

Yo I had a wood stove n my bus, it worked great if u don't mind getting up every couple hours to Stoke it. We loved it but we liked to burn slow so our bus put out too much smoke and our land owners said no wood stoves period , but if you can get away with it I totally recommend it

That's not exactly true. Proper catalytic wood stoves work on the same principle as a gasifier. There is a considerable amount of unused fuel that escapes the burning process in the form of gas. Catalytic stoves with a secondary burn are able to use the remaining unused fuel and convert the majority of it in to additional heat.

Annnd finally my plan is to run several of these around the outside over the woodstove. In addition to helping evenly distribute heat (I'll have to dig up my plan diagrams), it will help offset my energy draw down over night.

I'm pretty sold on the kimber stove but not for 3.5k I like that it makes a rocket stove simple, and it has only two places for heat excape, less money spent on fireproofing, added bonus is you can plop a skillet on top save on LP, lastly the mooring is much smaller less cutting into the roof. As for the smaller stove less burn time debate, I've found pres-to-logs to be amazing for smaller stoves, one log gives about 8hr burn time in a open fireplace, they create very little ash and are fairly cheap $7 per 6 pack or $1.15 each you can use a small hatchet to slice them into pucks if they don't fit your tiny stoves. Has anyone seen any kimber knock offs?

YT is full of various stoves you can build yourself. For folks that are already working on buses it would seem the wood stove issue would also be a build specialized for the bus. For some reason stoves made from a steel tube or large pipe expel more heat than a square stove. Of course I don't have any proof of that other than personal experience.

If any of you remember the old, old timers, they often had an awkward looking long stove pipe crossing the ceiling of the room. That was not an accident or poor planning. The stove pipe can put out as much heat as the stove itself with a longer run.

Personally, and I realize my opinion isn't always valued, I would not spend more on a stove than I spent on the purchase of this bus. That stove on that site was reported as "$4545 TOTAL Investment".

Of course what does or does not go in your bus is up to each and every individual here. I only have pride for my stove when it's a cold day and the stove is very, very hot.

Personally, and I realize my opinion isn't always valued, I would not spend more on a stove than I spent on the purchase of this bus. That stove on that site was reported as "[COLOR=#cd6600][B]$4545 TOTAL Investment".

That was my thoughts exactly!!! But you can admit it's a pretty impressive stove "from the box". I like the rocket stove idea because your mooring can have a cool to the touch temp, all your heat is expelled from the top of your resonating chamber and not out your flew.

YT is full of various stoves you can build yourself. For folks that are already working on buses it would seem the wood stove issue would also be a build specialized for the bus. For some reason stoves made from a steel tube or large pipe expel more heat than a square stove. Of course I don't have any proof of that other than personal experience.

If any of you remember the old, old timers, they often had an awkward looking long stove pipe crossing the ceiling of the room. That was not an accident or poor planning. The stove pipe can put out as much heat as the stove itself with a longer run.

Personally, and I realize my opinion isn't always valued, I would not spend more on a stove than I spent on the purchase of this bus. That stove on that site was reported as "$4545 TOTAL Investment".

Of course what does or does not go in your bus is up to each and every individual here. I only have pride for my stove when it's a cold day and the stove is very, very hot.